Deir Atiyah Museum

A museum on a low hill at the northern edge of Deir Atiyah, looking south over the town. It is not one building but a cluster of separate rough-stone buildings, each given over to one kind of object. The site covers about 15 thousand square metres, and eSyria calls it the largest museum in Syria by area. The collection runs from the Hellenistic period to the 20th century, and most of it was bought from, or given by, people in Deir Atiyah, Qara, Nebek and Yabroud.

How it came about

Mohammad Dib Daaboul, a man from the town, started building it on his own initiative in 1982. The founding decree came in 1991. The museum opened officially in 1999 and was handed over to the Directorate-General of Antiquities and Museums. Buildings were added in stages as the need arose, so sources count them differently: the Arabic Wikipedia lists ten buildings plus a castle and a modern art building, while eSyria says 13.

Getting there

Deir Atiyah is 10 kilometres north of Nebek, beside the Damascus-Homs road. The museum is on the hill at the northern end of the town, up from the centre.

How long it takes

An hour and a half. You walk between the buildings through open courtyards.

What is there

The archaeology section is spread over five buildings: the Stone Age, pottery, stone objects, basalt and limestone pieces, and Arabic inscriptions carved in stone. The section of rare objects and folk traditions holds glass and ceramics, old farming tools, textiles and copper. The castle building has two floors, with 18th- and 19th-century swords, daggers and rifles, oil lamps, manuscripts and jewellery.

The main pieces:

• A fired-clay figurine of a woman
• A brick-red Hellenistic lamp (terra sigillata) from the 1st century BC
• A Roman pottery figure of a warrior from the 2nd to 3rd century
• A Roman grave stele showing an eagle with spread wings above a laurel wreath
• An altar with a Palmyrene inscription on one face
• A basalt lintel from a Byzantine church door, dated 821 in the Seleucid calendar, which is AD 509
• Mould-made Islamic jugs and Mamluk jugs with brown decoration
• Arab swords of many shapes and sizes from the 19th and 20th centuries

What most people miss

The Byzantine lintel. Its date needs two calendars read side by side: 821 in the Seleucid era, 509 in today’s reckoning. The Christian past of the Qalamoun still stands in the churches of Maaloula and Qara; here it sits on a single stone, with its date.

2013 and after

On 20 November 2013 armed groups entered the town and about 1300 objects were stolen from the museum. With help from local people, about 135 were recovered. Whether the museum is open after December 2024, and which sections can be visited, could not be confirmed; ask in Deir Atiyah before you go.